1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hot press device which heat presses a treatment object such as a sheet, etc., and, more specifically to a hot press device which can be suitably used for lamination treatment of a printed matter (print) formed by recording an image on paper, etc. by a recording method using recording liquid, in, for example an ink jet recording method, and also to a hot pressure adhesion treatment process by use thereof.
2. Related Background Art
The ink jet recording method is a method of recording in which small droplets of a recording liquid are attached from the orifice of a recording head onto a recording medium such as paper, etc. The method is attracting attention as the recording method capable of performing high speed recording, and full-color image recording with little noise and without requiring a special fixing treatment.
The recording liquid to be used in the ink jet recording is generally formed of a recording agent, primarily a dye, etc., with water or a mixture of water and various solvents as the solvent therefor.
In such an ink jet recording method in which an aqueous recording liquid is used, the recording medium to be used for recording must be excellent in absorption and stability of the recording liquid. Above all, in multi-color ink jet recording using recording liquids of two or more colors, because of the increased amount of the recording liquid emitted onto the recording medium, it must be particularly good in absorption and stability of the recording liquid.
A recording medium excellent in such characteristics has been known which has a receiving layer for recording liquid comprising a porous material good in absorption and stability of recording liquid provided on a substrate such as paper, etc.
On the other hand, a recording medium having a porous receiving layer for recording liquid involves the drawback that it lacks gloss on the recording medium surface, whereby even a sharply recorded image may be inferior in sharpness of the image when observed with eyes. This has been a problem to be solved particularly in forming a color print by recording a mult-color image according to the ink jet recording method.
To cope with this problem, it has been practiced to give gloss to the print by lamination treatment of the recorded surface with a film after an image was formed on the recording paper with a recording liquid.
Among such lamination treatments, the one employing a peel-off transfer type lamination film has such a specific feature that storage of lamination film is simple and its handling is also easy, etc. Generally speaking, a lamination film material comprising a transfer material composed mainly of a thermoplastic resin such as an acrylic resin, a polystyrene resin, a polyester resin, a polyethylene resin, etc. peelably provided on a substrate such as paper, cloth, plastic, etc. is closely contacted onto the image forming surface to be pressure-adhered, followed by separation of the substrate, thereby permitting the transfer material to remain on the above recording medium to impart gloss to the recorded surface.
In the prior art, laminators to be used for lamination treatment have been constituted only of a hot press roller pair and a guide roller pair.
When a laminated product comprising only a lamination film and a print with different thermal shrinkages is treated by use of such a laminator, the laminated product will be extremely curled in the laminator after hot pressing, with the result that the laminated product may be wound around rollers or generate wrinkles, and having the drawbacks of jamming and unstable lamination done in a stable manner.
In the lamination device of the prior art, for simplification of the device structure, the insertion inlet for treatment objects and the paper discharging outlet are provided separately, and therefore separate spaces for insertion and discharging are required before and after the main device, to involve the problem that the installation site is restricted.